You guys are right to mention coal, absolutely (which was used here in western PA as well). What I know of WV is first person, largely, since I did a Bachelors and a Masters at WVU, all about 10-15 years ago. The real decline started with Gore, who was seen as too hippie, too environmentalist, and too anti-gun (this was a big issue, and gun control really raised ire), and I suspect that the proliferation of the Internet and 24-hour news at that time in the middle late 1990s had a lot to do with it. I know that folks from the Philly area were in a bit of culture shock there.
For some reason, Dukakis and Clinton were acceptable. Then the bottom fell out for national Dems. The likely reason is that people started to gather that the national Dem party is really no longer 1960s era blue collar populist. The 1980s changed that.
You have to take into consideration that there are many local factors at work in forming people's attitudes, and the state is fairly isolated. Unions are popular, but anti-Red attitudes persist, as to do racist attitudes.
